Who’d be a football manager? Nothing but a 100% record will satisfy media and club owners. Yet in real life total success is a dream, not a reality – even for the most successful teams.

Take today’s games in the English Premier League. Chelsea boss Avram Grant was regarded as a ‘dead man walking’ in the grotesque language of sporting journalism. (See today’s Sunday Times for just a flavour.) Yet his team today overcame Arsenal having been a goal down. Grant has been manager for just six months. So talk of his inability to influence the big games seemed premature – and he came up trumps today. His predecessor, the fabled Jose Mourinho, appeared to have run out of patience with his billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich, and had hit losing ways before he was fired. Who’s to say Jose would have done better had he stayed? But then the media can never lose a game…

It’s just the same in another sport, rugby union. Today’s Sunday Times also called time on Brian Ashton’s time as England rugby’s chief coach. Ashton is a patently decent man who has been frustrated by the intrugue surrounding his job. Against all expectations, he led England to the runners up medals in the World Cup and Six Nations. True, there have been some dreadful failures along the way, but sport isn’t a one way street. One of the more shameful sights of the 2008 Six Nations was the BBC’s Sonia McLoughlin repeatedly asking Ashton if he had any hope of keeping his job. This after an impressive win over Ireland secured second place in the championship. One wonders how many Six Nations games McLoughlin has played… Ashton, to his credit, kept his cool.

True, Avram and Brian are well rewarded for their pains. But so are the media know-alls who pursue them.